ERIC Digest Series: Copyright Concerns in the Age of Distance Education

February 5, 2001

They alone have the legal rights to reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, or publicly display their works or to construct derivative works. The recently enacted Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has created several complex questions related to distance education for which higher education institutions must quickly search for procedural answers. The questions framed in this paper challenge basic knowledge of current copyright law and typify today’s concerns in institutions of higher education: copyright owners referred to in these questions and answers are either an organization or individuals in an institution.